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Your Parking Questions

Parking Services & Customer Feedback

Frequently Asked Questions

Our Parking Services team are committed to providing great customer service.

If we don’t get it right we want to know about it and welcome your feedback. When we do get it right we want to know too! It helps us improve even further.

There are some things our customers contact us about so thought it helpful to give some information here – it might deal with your concerns. If there are issues you’d like to ask about, please call us on 01225 4771333/4.

If you wish to provide formal feedback or make a complaint you can do this. Please see the link at the bottom.

There seems to be a focus on issuing parking penalty notices – why is that?

There is often a lot in the national press on this one.

In reality, the percentage of time spent dealing with penalty notices is less than 10% of the total working day for Civil Enforcement Officers (Parking Officers). The majority of time is spent as ambassadors for the Council, talking to people and providing a highly visible, uniformed on-street presence, particularly given the many visitors to our historic city.

Civil Enforcement Officers provide a visible deterrent to illegal parking, promote education and compliance with parking restrictions and take a common sense approach to the issue Penalty Charge Notices. You can find some tips for avoiding a Penalty Charge Notice by clicking on the following link - Parking Enforcement

More broadly, Parking Services work supports our wider transport strategies to help reduce congestion and air pollution and allow residents, visitors and business to move around and across Bath & North East Somerset as easily as possible.

I’ve got a Parking Fine and I want to dispute it. Why can’t I just speak to you and sort it out?

If you believe a Penalty Charge Notice has been issued incorrectly or you have mitigating circumstances, you can make a ‘challenge’ on-line at the Parking Enforcement webpage. If you need help to do this or assistance with a written challenge, Customer Advisors at our One Stop Shops are happy to help.

We understand it may be frustrating, but we can’t consider a challenge over the phone. We need to ensure fairness for everyone and follow a transparent and auditable process.

If you dispute or have issues about a Penalty Charge Notice, please don’t use the corporate Feedback and Complaints procedure as this is outside of the policy. Please make a challenge or representation depending on the position of the case as we have to follow the statutory legal process for Parking.

This ensures you keep the right to an independent appeal with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal if you remain dissatisfied.

There seem to be a lot of coaches about and they are sometimes in the way of where I want to park. What’s happening?

Due to essential flood mitigation and flood defence work to the North and South bank of the River Avon, coaches now only use the Riverside Coach Park in Bath to drop off and pick up passengers. Coach parking has been relocated to the First Bus Weston Island depot. Coach operators are aware of the changes.

We are working on longer term coach parking solutions but in the interim we undertake daily mobile patrols to identify coach parking issues. Civil Enforcement Officers promote compliance with parking restrictions and take enforcement action through the issue of Penalty Charge Notices where appropriate. If you have concerns about coach parking in your area, please call the team on 01225 4771333/4.

Trying to find a car park space in Bath can be difficult and it’s particularly difficult right now in the Southgate area. Why is that and what are my better options?

We understand how busy people are these days and traffic is busy at times, particularly in the Southgate area given the works to improve flood defences and the Bath Quays South Development.

Park and Ride services are the easiest way to travel into Bath by car. You can park at the site for free and pay on the bus to your destination. Please see the Park and Ride page for more information.

We know there are times when Park and Ride may not be an option for you. You can find information about travel options as well as ‘real time’ information about space availability in a number of central car parks in Bath and the Park and Ride sites here - Car Parking. There are also electronic signs at key routes displaying information about space availability.

We live in an area that isn’t part of a Resident Parking Zone but we keep experiencing problems with parking. How can we get a Resident Parking Zone set up for our area?

We have produced two new information guides - ‘The Purpose of Residents Parking Schemes’ and ‘Guidance on the Introduction of Residents Parking schemes’ which can be viewed here - Parking Permits. The guides explain our approach to Resident Parking schemes and give information about the pros and cons. We explain how we assess and design schemes and the criteria used to decide if a request will go forward.

My property is in a Residents Parking Zone but apparently not eligible for a permit – Why is this?

Bath is a historical Georgian City which has limited space and capacity for parking. To prevent additional pressure on the parking space available a decision was made by the Executive Member for Transportation & Highways on 14th August 2006 to restrict further permits. The decision means that new property developments or existing properties that are redeveloped (e.g. demolished, rebuilt or subdivided) after 14th August 2006 are not entitled to permits.

We strongly recommend that prospective buyers or tenants contact our team on telephone number 01225 477133/4 about potential entitlement to a Residents permit.

If you would like to provide feedback, make a suggestion or complain, please click on the following link - Make a Complaint Online